On Media

Romney to seek Washington Post retraction

By DYLAN BYERS

06/27/2012 01:05 PM EDT

Mitt Romney campaign representatives will meet with The Washington Post today to seek a formal retraction of its June 21 report that Bain Capital invested in firms that specialized in outsourcing American jobs, POLITICO has learned.

The representatives will meet with executive editor Marcus Brauchli and other senior Post staff at 2 p.m. today at the Post's offices in Washington.

The group intends to argue that the Post's allegations against Bain Capital and the firms in question are either incomplete or inaccurate, sources familiar with the meeting say. Specifically, the group will argue that the Post misinterpreted the SEC filings it examined for its report and failed to adequately account for the support these firms gave to U.S. exports or U.S. businesses through foreign hiring. The campaign raised similar objections to the story prior to its publication.

The group has prepared defenses for each firm mentioned in the Post's article — including Chippac, Corporate Software, GT Bicycle, Modus Media, SMTC Corp., and Stream International — on a case by case basis.

"The Post's editors take all complaints seriously and are always willing to listen to concerns and look into them," Post spokesperson Kris Coratti told POLITICO, when asked about the meeting. She did not provide any further details.

Romney campaign officials did not respond to repeated requests for an interview or confirmation.

In its examination of SEC filings, the Post found that Romney's private equity firm Bain Capital was an early investor in firms that specialized in outsourcing. "Bain played several roles in helping these outsourcing companies, such as investing venture capital so they could grow and providing management and strategic business advice as they navigated this rapidly developing field," wrote Tom Hamburger, the author of the article. (Romney campaign officials declined to comment on Bain’s record of investing in outsourcing firms under Romney.)

Publicly, the Romney campaign has been slow to respond to the article. Meanwhile, President Obama's campaign has turned it into a central part of its campaign strategy, releasing ads in in Iowa, Ohio and Virginia that use the Post story to paint a portrait of Romney as would-be outsourcer-in-chief.

“The Washington Post has just revealed that Romney’s companies were pioneers in shipping U.S. jobs overseas,” the ads say.

In its defense, Romney campaign officials have argued that the Obama campaign is confusing "outsourcing" with "offshoring," an argument that President Obama has criticized in recent campaign speeches.